Inbetween
by hogwartspuckle
Summary: (The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers) A strange girl works behind the scenes to make sure that Rey, Ben, and the Resistance defeat the revived Emperor Palpatine.
1. Chapter 1

A shine of color. A blinding light. A loud explosion. The sand sinks beneath her feet, and she quickly weighs her options. Ahead, a Tie, his Tie, speeds towards a lone figure, lightsaber in her hand. To her right, a Wookie is surrounded by a group of Stormtroopers, unable to fight back. And to her left, four figures remain unaware, two human, and the others artificial. She has to make a choice. One that would change everything, or nothing if she got it wrong. And so, she runs to her right, to the Wookie.

Her feet speed across the ground, picking up speed easily on the sand similar to the kind that she was raised on. She runs, faster and faster, ignoring the whirring of the approaching Tie. When the Troopers finally hear her approach, they all turn to face her, weapons raised. Before they can ask questions or worse, she raises her hand and waves it in front of them.

"This transport is full."

"This transport is full." "Yah it is." "It's so full." They reply.

"Take him to the next."

"We'll take him to the next."

"On your way."

"On our way." The Trooper orders and they head off over the dunes and towards another transport, Chewie turning to glance at her one last time.

A crash sounds behind her and she whips around just in time to see the explosion. Her breath catches, and it takes all of her strength to keep herself upright.

"Rey!" She hears Finn yell and realizes that she is much too close. Running away from the transport, she finds a rock to hide behind that still allows her view of everyone. She sees Poe Dameron at the top of the rocks, Finn on the ground not even fifty feet in front of her, Rey next to him, and Ben Solo emerging from a burning Tie. She watches as the transport takes off and Rey whips around to it, her hand reaching out to pull it to the ground. She almost does, she would have, but Ben reaches out his hand too.

The transport is rocked back and forth, pulled in so many directions that the occupants have to have several concussions by now. Poe and Finn tense, unable to do anything but watch their friend battle the monster they believe he is.

She watches as it registers on the others faces, a horrible lie that she needed them to believe was true. Even Ben seems shaken by it, but does his best not to show it. She would have waited to see how it played out, but it all needs to go the way she wants. So she runs. Following the footsteps of the Troopers and the Wookie she sent away, she runs. She has to reach them before the transport leaves the ground. She barely does. When she reaches them just outside the transport, she waves her hand again.

"Let me board."

"Welcome aboard." She steps into the transport, leaning against the wall and catching her breath. She feels the transport take off and closes her eyes to collect herself. In the middle of the transport, Chewbacca growls.

"Thank me by never mentioning this to anyone." She hears the question in his reply but ignores him, straightening her First Order Officer Uniform. Between the meditation and the short distance they had to travel, they arrive rather quickly. As they land, she makes one final adjustment to her already spotless uniform and smoothes stands tall. When the door opens, she lets the other occupants walk out first, waiting for everyone who knew about her to leave sight. Then, she walks out head high, using every ounce of training she has to make it seem like she belongs.

"You. Halt." Well, she tried at least. She turns to face the speaker and sighs a breath of relief. General Hux walks towards her and she stands at attention. "Have you come from the planet?"

"Yes, sir." She responds with as much authority as possible.

"I do not believe we sent an officer to intercept the resistance." She smiles.

"And I do not believe they know who the spy is that brought them there. Should I tell them?" Hux's confidence disappears and she smiles wider. Everything is working perfectly.


	2. Chapter 2

Hux has taken her to a side room, an office, no doubt a place where he could easily kill her and shove her body into a trash compactor without anyone noticing.

"So. What do you want?" Hux raises his blaster level to her stomach and she cannot help but smile.

"It's not what I want that's important. It's what you want." He nearly jumps back when she pushes the nozzle of his gun towards the ground without even touching it but stops himself.

"What do you mean?" He fights the urge to raise his blaster back up.

"I mean that you have risked your life just to mess with Kylo Ren and people are beginning to suspect. You have never been one to hide your emotions towards the man." His breath starts to become shaky and she walks in a circle around him, making him even more on edge. "They will be here soon: the Resistance. Or at least, Rey, Finn, and Poe. They will come to retrieve their Wookie friend who you just captured on Passana and will die in the process."

"And why should any of this matter to me?" He asks.

"Because, you want Kylo Ren to lose, and he _will _win if they are dead." He starts to talk but she interrupts, hoping to distract him from her lie. "Poe, Finn, and Chewbacca will be captured while trying to escape. Your job is to make sure that the executioner is not successful." He fidgets with the gun in his hand as if to reassure himself that it is still there, ready for whatever she may throw at him.

"Who are you?" She freezes. She expected this question, but she never managed to come up with the right answer to it.

"No one of consequence." She replies, hoping that will deter him. She can tell that he wants to ask more, but he does not, probably too afraid of what she could do to him with a twitch of her finger. "Tell me, what do you have against Kylo Ren?" He scoffs.

"He's a murderer and a traitor and his magic makes him believe he is above all others both in rank and importance."

"Well, at least one of those is true." He glares and she smiles wider.

"He has no regard for the Troopers who we have spent endless amounts of resources and time on programming them from the time they were toddlers."

"And you do?" He shakes his head.

"Not exactly. I acknowledge that the Troopers were programmed to fight and die so that more important people do not have to, but they should not be sent on suicide missions for no reason other than the Supreme Leader's personal vendettas." She laughs.

"You are your own worst enemy, General Hux. I just hope it will not be your downfall." He tilts his head in confusion but chooses to ignore her.

"If I decide to do this for you, you will let me go?" He says getting back to the problem at hand. She shakes her head.

"No. If you do this for _you_, you will let _me_ go." This makes him more confused but he nods, obviously very eager to get out of the room. "Very well." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a red and gold pin.

"I have a private transport in the hangar bay down the hall. It will take you wherever you need to go. Show this pin to the guards and they will let you pass." Hux hands her the pin and she puts it on her uniform, not bothering to say goodbye before walking towards the door.

"Thank you." It surprises her and she turns around. Maybe it is sincere, but she suspects it is just a way to seem as grateful as possible so that she will not shoot him. "What's your name?" She raises an eyebrow, knowing very well that if they knew her name, they could track her all over the galaxy, and she would never be free again.

"Call me J." He scoffs, knowing that is not her true name but keeps himself from saying anything. "Don't let me down." She walks out without another word.


	3. Chapter 3

The transport is small, but spacious enough for her to meditate fairly comfortably. With the transport on auto-pilot, she is able to meditate the entire way. When the console beeps warning that they are leaving lightspeed, she quickly changes out of her First Order uniform and slips on a grey cloak, pulling the hood up over her head.

When the ramp lowers, she is afraid. More afraid than she would like to admit. She knows that they are here somewhere, if they are even here yet. But if she runs into them, it is all over.

Packing a bag with the few ration packs and water bottles she can find in the transport, she heads outside. The water is calm, much calmer than it needs to be for her to reach her destination. She heads over to the edge of the cliff, searching for any suitable place to land. Her ship would most likely fit on most of the visible surfaces, but it would be seen from most of those spots. The trouble is finding a spot that would mostly cover, or completely cover the ship, giving them no reason to believe that she was ever there. And even though she knew they were going to come here, she has no idea as to where on the ruins the Sith Wayfinder will be.

She walks along the cliffs for hours, looking for the perfect spot. When the sun starts to set, she turns to head back, but something pulls her attention to the ruins on her left. It is a feeling, an instinct that makes her jump off the cliff.

She lands with a thud rather than a splash. A tiny bit of the Death Star is peaking up above the water, too small to notice from the cliff. Glad that she found a way down, but realizing that she made a mistake in jumping, she is about to climb back up the cliff when she whips around without even thinking. She cannot explain the feeling that leads her to jump again, farther away from the cliff. She lands on yet another platform, this one not even visible underneath the inches of water covering it. She jumps again, and again, and again, until somehow, she is standing atop a large strip of the ruins, several meters above the waves.

"I guess there's no going back now." She says to herself, looking back at the cliff.

…

She wakes to Kylo Ren's Tie Interceptor landing on the Death Star close to her. She had found a safe place to sleep on the top of the ruins, waiting for Rey and Kylo Ren to arrive. Forcing herself to wake quickly, she moves herself as far behind the corner as possible. When he passes, moving further into the ruins, she knows that both he and Rey will emerge soon, so she waits.

They first appear down the Death Star quite a ways. Their lightsabers clash together so loudly that she can hear the noise as blue and red blurs together. The result is a beautiful display of strength and keeps her eyes locked onto them for several minutes.

When Rey jumps up onto the section that she is on, she scurries to the other side of her shelter, leaning around the edge to see Kylo Ren jump up. Through the Force, she does everything in her power to send a message to Leia, a message she has to hear, or it will all be over.

As they move closer, she scoots her way back over to the other side of the corner, staying out of sight. They fight for several more moments, and it is not until Ben freezes that she knows that Leia got her message. He senses his mother, and knows of the events that will soon occur. With an outreached hand, she gently prys Ben's hand open, letting his lightsaber fall straight into Rey's hands.


End file.
